The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission used a London platform this month to make an argument that African governments have increasingly sought to press on their own terms, that the continent’s infrastructure and energy needs are best understood not as a deficit to be filled from outside but as an investable opportunity in which African institutions, capital and policy direction should sit at the centre.
Speaking at the Africa Infrastructure & Energy Conference in London, organised by Financial Markets Indaba under the theme of mobilising private capital for Africa’s infrastructure and energy future, the Commission’s Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, Aisha Rimi, set out Nigeria’s case during the event’s Nigeria Country Spotlight. The conference gathered senior government officials, development finance institutions, institutional investors, commercial banks and infrastructure funds, all engaged in the increasingly crowded conversation about how private capital might be drawn into African infrastructure and energy projects at scale.
Rimi’s presentation touched on power, renewable energy, transport, logistics, manufacturing, digital infrastructure and industrial development as priority areas for the Commission, and she framed the Commission’s task as one of improving project bankability and streamlining investment processes to connect investors with high impact opportunities. Her remarks positioned NIPC as an active broker connecting investors to opportunities that Nigeria itself has identified and shaped, reinforcing the country’s commitment to strengthening public private partnerships and delivering long term economic transformation.
NIPC reported that it facilitated more than ten billion United States dollars in investment commitments during 2025 across clean energy, manufacturing, telecommunications and infrastructure, a claim consistent with independently reported figures showing over ten billion dollars in capital inflows attributed to the Commission’s reoriented focus on fintech, agritech and renewable energy sectors during the same period. The Commission has also worked to strengthen coordination with state investment promotion agencies and One Stop Investment Centres, an effort aimed at reducing the friction that has historically discouraged investors from converting interest into implementation.
That effort has been recognised both domestically and internationally.
NIPC was ranked the overall best performing Ministry, Department or Agency in Nigeria’s 2026 Public Service Reforms Performance Assessment, conducted by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, ahead of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council and the Nigerian Communications Commission. The assessment measured agencies against indicators including transparency, freedom of information compliance and fiscal integrity, a recognition that underscores the Commission’s institutional excellence and its commitment to investor service delivery.
Rimi’s central message to the London audience concerned the pace and coherence of continental integration. She argued that deeper collaboration, smarter policy design and faster implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area are essential if Africa’s infrastructure potential is to be unlocked at the scale the continent requires. This is a theme that resonates well beyond Nigeria’s borders. Across Southern and West Africa alike, policymakers have grown increasingly vocal about the gap between AfCFTA’s ambition on paper and the slower reality of its implementation, and Rimi’s intervention added Nigeria’s voice to a chorus of African institutions arguing that predictable regulation, stronger regional value chains and genuine partnership between governments, development finance institutions and private capital are the preconditions for transformation, not its consequence.
The conference also pointed to the nineteen billion dollar Dangote Refinery as an illustration of the scale of investment Nigeria’s economy has proven capable of absorbing and delivering. The refinery, one of the continent’s most significant industrial undertakings, has been cited repeatedly in Nigerian policy circles as evidence that large, complex industrial projects can be built and operated within Africa rather than merely designed elsewhere and financed from outside. Alongside this, NIPC highlighted its work supporting renewable energy deployment and clean cooking technologies, initiatives that speak to a quieter but no less important dimension of investment promotion, one concerned with emissions reduction and inclusive development rather than headline grabbing announcements alone.
For the wider continent, Nigeria’s contribution reinforces a broader and welcome argument, that African institutions are capable of setting the terms of their own investment narratives, of measuring their own performance against rigorous standards, and of presenting infrastructure and energy development as a matter of strategic partnership rather than dependency. Nigeria continues to demonstrate strong leadership in creating an enabling investment environment, and the Commission’s achievements in attracting investment, supporting policy reform and facilitating strategic partnerships offer an important model for the continent as AfCFTA implementation gathers pace.
